From 18th century automatons that could write a full letter to the player pianos featured in every saloon, mechanical inventions have fascinated us for centuries. Yet the smallest pieces can garner ...

Unless you're feeding gold coins into your mechanical bank, you probably need another means of saving for retirement. Still, mechanical coin banks are among the oddest offshoots of the industrial ...

Watch: 35 antique mechanical coin banks in motion A collection of 35 mechanical banks from the late 1800s to early 1900s will be auctioned off May 6 at Keystone Auctions in York.

The cast-iron variety made in the 1800s now sell for impressive sums. Even this 1940s tin toy sold for $615 Canadian. Novelty banks rewarded children with a little show for saving their coins. This ...

Question: When my aunt died, my father asked if I would like any of her things. I selected the odd clown bank shown in my attached photo. It had intrigued me as a child, so I took it to a local shop, ...

The celebrated circa-1870 George Brown (Forestville, Conn.) ‘Charles’ Hose Reel Carriage, auction estimate $125,000-$175,000 Mid 1880s Kyser & Rex (Philadelphia) Merry-Go-Round cast-iron mechanical ...

Noel Barrett Antiques & Auctions Ltd. Carversville, PA, Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. Value can change: The value of an item is ...

According to ROADSHOW appraiser Noel Barrett, an antique-toy dealer in Carversville, Pennsylvania, the majority of collectible mechanical banks were manufactured around the turn of the 20th century.

In this video, we explore an exciting restoration project as we revive an old mechanical skull coin bank. The process includes assessing its condition, careful cleaning, sandblasting, repair, and ...

In this intricate mechanical bank, the user balances a coin on the miniature man's gun, which then shoots the coin into a slot in the tree. Image courtesy of Kidd's Toy Museum There’s a whole lot of ...